Cordoba 45 FCE

The Cordoba 45 FCE flamenco guitar has solid spruce top, sycamore back and sides, ebony fretboard, deluxe gold Fustero tuners, clear golpe plate, ebony bridge, lacquer finish, Fishman Classic 4 Deluxe preamp with the new Acoustic Matrix co-polymer under saddle pickup (the wide red one), deep cutaway, and D'Addario norman tension strings, Honduran cedar neck, and wide 52mm nut width. I could find no flaws in finish or construction on this particular flamenco guitar. It is a 2006 model that is being discontinued, as far as I can tell for the sparse Cordoba website. According the Fishman website, the Classic 4 Deluxe differs from the Classic 4 only by having the new Acoustic Matrix under saddle pickup. The 4 eqs are brilliance, treble, mid, and bass. I prefer to set all controls to full high except for the treble at mid position (0 db). There is a very slight hum from the Fishman when the bass and mid sliders are at full high setting, but it is hardly noticable. The string height and setup are perfect for me.

The sound of a flamenco guitar takes some getting used to. The slightly buzzy and harsh sound from the bass strings, due to the low frets and low string height, is supposed to be normal for flamenco. I do not particularly like this sound, so I changed the strings to D'Addario hard tension and what a difference it makes! The hard tension strings bring this guitar to life with a strong robust attack with excellent intonation and no tendency to backbuzz on the first few frets. After the strings settled in over night, the sound is truly beautiful in every respect. The treble strings on the upper frets have marvelous overtones, and the bass strings sound strong and forceful but clear and very distinctive without any tiny sound. Now I can use this guitar for more than just flameco. It would be suitable for some classical music, crossover jazz, Latin, world music and others.

The fretboard is excellent with low frets, low string height without buzzing on any frets, the frets are smooth, the neck is straight,the finish is flawless, and the deluxe gold tuners are top notch.

The penetrating sound of this flamenco guitar would be excellent for live performance, solo or with a group. I use a Washburn QM4 PA system made by Soundtech with full reverb.I would always take an extra guitar on a gig in case of a broken string.

I bought is new at Guitar Center and have had no trouble with it. It comes with a three year warranty through Cordoba. I did not get any extended warranty. I checked it out thoroughly at the store. This 2006 model had never been taken out of the box. Guitar Center gave me a deep discount because this model is appaerently being discontinued by Cordoba. They are keeping the CWE-S model for which they charge an extra $500, and the CWE-S does not have the upscale features of the 45 FCE. The list price for the 45 FCE is $1129 and $1695 for the CWE-S.

I have been playing classical and flamenco guitar seriously for 8 months. I am self taught from practice, trial and error, and books. I also have a Ramirez 4E, an Alvarez AC40SC, and a Cordoba C5-CE. I like them all and use them all for different types of music in different settings. I would definitely replace this Cordoba if it were lost or stolen, and I don't know why they are discontinuing it.

These are the features that count- ebony fretboard, clear pickgaurd (finger rest protector), electronics plug in the correct position (tail block), overlay on headstock, 2 1/16 " wide at nut., I usually hate binding but I love this binding because its dark and thin rosewood against a blonde body. When I buy a guitar it has to speak to me in its own way, not only to my ears but to my eyes as well. It came with a hard case, big deal.... I traded it in for a gigbag to get the price down. Not sure if high tension strings are on it but I put them on soon (this could have something to do with its soft spoken tone and volume).

When plugged in it sounds pretty good, why not? its a fishman, they usually sound good anyway (fishman pickups). This is good because I mainly record and do not perform (accept to an audience of one). Unplugged, the guitar is soft spoken but has no rattles or buzzes. I think this is just the nature of any guitar to have its own attitude. If I had to depend on it for its own volume in a performance situation, everybody had better be quiet or you will miss it. I played an array of Cordobas at guitar center and this one had the best sounding tone for the $400-$700 range w/ a pickup.Side by side w/ other similar guitars, the tone was good. But if it is all by itself you are left questioning its tone and volume. I think all that pickup stuff takes away from the overall tonality of the guitar.
I'm a jazz player that dabbles in classical/ flaminco. I think this guitar will work for me , but read the the rest of the review, I have other issues.

Finish is good to excellent all over the guitar. I hate pickgaurds but I really like the clear finger rest protector on this guitar. Only time will tell what it will look like in years to come. When I got the guitar home I found alot of blems under the clear coat, but that doesn't bother me, and its not cordobas fault, its guitar centers fault for having it so dang dark in their acoustic room, oh well....

This is where I'll review the action issue. The action is high. 3/16 at the 12th fret. Is that high to you? Probably not for a classical. Personal preference says what good action is. It felt way more compfortable after I shaved a 16th" off the saddle. I may have gone a little further but I could not. If I went any further the strings would have bottomed out on the bridge slot. This is not good, its not a problem now but time will tell if I need to doctor the bridge if the neck angle changes. I'm an instrument builder and have a good working knowledge of guitar mechanics so I can usually take action issues and fix them (not everyone can do that).

warranty? whats that? for a $600 guitar? yeh right.

This guitar has everything I wanted in a classical. That's why I have over looked some of the issues in this review. All I wanted was an all blonde classical guitar with electronics. I did not want a korean or taiwan POS, even if they sounded a little better. Cordoba put the plug in the right spot (in the tale block w/ a strap button), that is important to me. The tuners seem to work and they look good. The neck heel is totally original, I love to touch it and look at it, what a great idea for a cutaway. The flame sycamore is beautiful as well as the bookmatched spruce top, and the rosewood headstock overlay. There are only two wondering questions I have for a guitar of this price #1- No truss rod? (this isn't always a nessacity, but everyone does it these days). #2- Whats up with the funky kerfing? I've never seen that kind before. When I build instruments, I make my own kerfing and it don't look like that. I would love to see a web site on the cordoba construction.